Product Description

Hilary Swank stars in this story about a teacher in a racially divided school who gives her students what they ve always needed - a voice. Swank plays Erin Gruwell the real-life teacher at Long Beach s Wilson High who inspired her students to overcome the gangs that divided them and the education system that forgot them. Based on the book The Freedom Writers Diary and supported by a cast of first-time actors who drew from their actual experiences on the street Gruwell teaches us all an important lesson about tolerance and trust.System Requirements:Running Time: 122 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 097361243245 Manufacturer No: 124324

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1423 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
• Released on: 2007-04-17
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com
Though the "inspirational teacher" theme may feel done to death, Freedom Writers succeeds because it emphasizes the students as much as the teacher. Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby, Boys Don't Cry) comes to a southern California high school bubbling over with naive optimism, but quickly discovers that her unruly classroom isn't easily won over by her good intentions. After a few floundering attempts to connect with her students, Gruwell gives them the assignment of keeping journals about their own lives--an assignment that the class bites into with relish, which eventually bonds them together and pushes racial rivalries aside. This plotline has been made before, sometimes well, sometimes poorly; Freedom Writers, by drawing heavily from the published journals of the students--and thanks to a (mostly) unheroic script, direction that emphasizes individual characters over stereotypes, and rigorous performances from the whole cast--makes the story seem fresh and genuine. Swank does solid work, but the standouts are April L. Hernandez as a girl whose gang wants her to lie and send an innocent boy to jail and Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake) as a teacher who resents Gruwell's offbeat success. Also featuring Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy), Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff), and a plethora of strong young actors. --Bret Fetzer

Beyond Freedom Writers

More Inspirational Teacher Films on DVD

The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell

More DVDs Starring Hilary Swank

Customer Reviews

Patrick Dempsey was the sole flaw
I am not a fan of Patrick Dempsey in the least. Therefore, he bothered me in this movie. That is the solitary flaw.

Now that I have that said, this is one of the best movies for all of us saps who love something inspirational. Being a teacher, albeit of grade school, this tribute to the book and its authors especially touched me.

The acting is beside the point. Good performances, there you go. It's the story that makes this movie, a story that takes in gang-related kids to tell what is truly going on in their lives and how they feel.

MTV did a great job putting it altogether. The film is poetic, moving, and even cool.

Ummm...a bit more than just another teacher saving the sweat hogs story
I read a few reviews of this movie, and I realized something that I thought was pretty well presented in this film: not everyone's reality is the same as mine...you might not see the same movie I saw. First, this is based on a true story. A teacher inspires a class to believe in themselves and change the attitude of a hopeless community. I don't think there is a situation in the film where people feel sorry for each other, they learn to understand and accept each other. Which is probably the worst thing that could happen to the human race as a whole (that's sarcasm). Ummm...this wasn't merely another film from a specific genre, it's based on a true story and dedicated to one of the students from the actual class who was killed in a gang-related crime. Ultimately, the movie is about doing the right thing, and how the people in charge often hide behind a system to prevent change. Now go read all the redneck 1-star reviews, and count how many admit they didn't watch the whole film.

It's a Movie about Writing, Badly Written
Leaving no cliche unturned, Freedom Writers is another in a long line of "uplifting" movies about inner city school kids moved to greatness by a struggling, selfless rookie teacher. I'm sure the true story upon which this disaster was based was indeed inspiring, but this movie was realized in such a leaden, ham-fisted and amateurish fashion, it took all of the self-discipline I could muster to keep watching through to the end. Barely literate high-school students, suddenly handed empty journal books, magically transform into brilliant writers. Character development, especially that of the school's faculty and administrators is limited to minimal cardboard stereotypes. Baffling subplots serve to make the film seem even more intolerably lengthy. Hillary Swank looks great, though.

If you want to see a story about inner city education brilliantly and honestly portrayed, check out season 4 of HBO's "The Wire".